


Not Exactly the Introduction I Was Hoping For

by DKNC



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-19
Updated: 2014-10-19
Packaged: 2018-02-21 17:52:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2477126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DKNC/pseuds/DKNC
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This story was written as a birthday present for SecondStarOnTheLeft who is rather fond of pairing Sansa Stark with Willas Tyrell. </p><p>This is a modern AU in which Sansa Stark has been secretly dating a former professor for a few months. Her parents discovery of this secret does NOT occur in a manner that any of them would have chosen. A bit of the story is told from the perspective of each of the four people involved.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Exactly the Introduction I Was Hoping For

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SecondStarOnTheLeft](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondStarOnTheLeft/gifts).



SANSA

Sansa Stark couldn’t stop shaking, and she felt like an idiot for it. _I am twenty-two years old,_ she thought as she angrily jerked the brush through her hair. _I am not a child. I do not need their approval._

Yet, even as she repeated the phrases in her head with each brush stroke, she knew them for lies. Legal definitions of adulthood aside, her parents’ opinion of her still mattered greatly to her. She knew they loved her, but they’d always been proud of her as well, and that was important—however old she was.

 _How proud they must be now,_ she thought derisively, and she laid the brush down on her make-up table because her hand was shaking too badly to hold it. _Why did they have to waltz right into MY apartment?_ she asked herself, but the answer came immediately. _Because you gave them the key, and you told them to!_ How could she have gotten the dates mixed up?

“Sansa?” Her mother’s soft voice came from the other side of the door. “Are you all right, sweetheart?”

 _No._ “I’m fine, Mother.” Her voice sounded anything but fine, and she knew her mother could hear it, too. She picked up the hairbrush again, but her hands were still shaking. _They saw us …Mother and Daddy SAW us!_ A tiny sob of embarrassment, guilt, and shame escaped her.

Mother heard it. “Sansa, you are not fine, and I am coming in now.”

The door opened. Sansa didn’t turn around, but she could see her mother’s concerned face reflected in the mirror. Catelyn Stark stood there in the doorway, long hair impeccably styled, dressed for the football game in the colors of Sansa’s university, and looking almost young enough to be a student there rather than the mother of a senior. The tiny lines around her eyes and those around her mouth that were currently exaggerated as her lips pressed together into a worried frown were all that gave her age away. Sansa couldn’t meet her eyes, even in the mirror. She simply pulled her hairbrush shakily through her own long hair without saying anything.

“Here,” her mother said, walking briskly across her bedroom to take the brush from her hand. “Let me do that. You’re shaking like a leaf, child.”

 _Child. Oh, god,_ Sansa thought. _After what she walked in on!_

Her mother’s thoughts must have gone in the same direction because even as her hands moved the brush through Sansa’s hair in the same competent and somehow comforting manner they always had, Catelyn Stark sighed. “Of course, you aren’t a child any more, are you, darling?”

“I …I’m sorry, Mother. I never meant for …”

“For your father and me to walk in on you like that?” Her mother gave a very small laugh as she reached around Sansa to pick up her hair clasp. “Well, I should hope not. I assume you forgot we were coming today?”

Sansa nodded, and Mother put a hand to the side of her head to hold her still just as she had when she was a little girl, and that made Sansa smile just a bit. “I put it on my calendar for next Saturday,” she said. “There’s a home game then, too, and …I even got you the right tickets! They’re for today’s game, but …I looked at my calendar and I …Oh, god! Does Daddy hate me?”

She whirled around to look at her mother’s face as she asked the question, needing to see her eyes when she answered. One look at the tears which had sprung to her own eyes caused her mother to bite back her admonition to keep still, and she instead pulled Sansa to her, cradling her head against the front of her blue knit sweater.

“Of course not, sweetheart! Don’t even think such a thing! Your father could never hate you!”

Sansa felt ridiculously young as she sat there sniffling with her cheek pressed up against Mother’s sweater and her arms wrapped tightly around Mother’s waist. “But I saw his face,” she choked out. “He was so …” She shook her head. “I saw your face, too,” she said more softly. “I wanted to die.”

“Well, I can’t say that your father or I wanted to be where we were just then, either, Sansa. It was a bit of a shock,” her mother said matter-of-factly. “But we’re hardly unfamiliar with the concept of sex. We’ve had it ourselves, you know.”

“Mother!” Sansa exclaimed, pulling back from her mother’s embrace to stare up at her face in shock.

“Oh dear,” Mother said. “Now whose face looks shocked? Turn around and let me get this clip fastened, and then let’s talk. At least you managed to get yourself dressed without my help.”

Sansa blushed bright red, but she obediently turned around in her chair. With her sitting still, her mother finished her hair in a matter of seconds and then pulled her to sit beside her on the bed.

“As I said,” Mother began, “You are not a child, and while it’s not always an easy thing for your father and I to accept, we do want you to live your own life, Sansa.”

“But …I know you want me to finish school and get married and …”

“Oh, I still do want those things for you, as long as you want them. But what does that have to do with today?”

“Daddy will think I’m …that I’m a…”

“Your father will think you are perfect, just as he always has,” her mother assured her. “Now his opinion of that young man you were with … Willas, he said his name was? Anyway, your father …”

“Where is Willas?” Sansa interrupted, suddenly realizing that in her misery over her parents walking in to discover her entirely naked, enthusiastically riding her boyfriend’s cock on her living room carpet, she hadn’t spared a thought for the man himself. That made her feel even smaller.

“He grabbed up his clothes and ran into the bathroom with impressive speed after you fled in here. He got dressed pretty quickly, came back out and told us his name. Then your father asked him to come take a walk.”

“Oh, god.” Sansa put her face in her hands.

“Your father’s angry, Sansa, but he won’t kill him. He only wants to talk.”

“I’ve had ‘talks’ with Daddy,” Sansa said miserably. “Poor Willas. I should go and …”

She started to rise, but Mother put a hand on her arm. “You should do nothing of the sort. If you care about your father’s opinion of this man at all, and I do hope that you care because I confess the idea of your having sex with some man who means nothing to you does bother me …”

“He does! I do! Care, I mean …about what Daddy thinks of him!” Sansa interrupted, grabbing at her mother’s hands.

Mother smiled. “I’m glad. Anyway, if you want him to have any hope of salvaging your father’s good opinion, you’ll have to let him speak for himself, however uncomfortable Ned makes the conversation.”

Sansa nodded. “I just want him to understand,” she said softly.

“Oh, Sansa,” Mother said, hugging her suddenly, and then pulling back to look her in the eyes. “Do you truly think he doesn’t? We were married when I was twenty-one, and I was pregnant with Robb at your age!”

“But you were married,” Sansa said, thinking that would make a tremendous amount of difference to her father.

“Not the first time we had sex,” her mother said flatly, and Sansa’s eyes widened once more in shock.

Her mother laughed. “You really need to stop being so shocked that your father and I were people long before we were your parents. Young people in love. Who could barely keep our hands off each other.”

Realizing that her mother, at least, was not yet prepared to condemn her as an amoral harlot, Sansa began to regain her equilibrium and decided to tease Mother just a bit before telling her the other things she feared might shock or disappoint her. “Well, that hasn’t changed much, has it? I mean all five of us and all of our friends have walked in on you two kissing in pretty much every room of our house.”

Her mother’s cheeks colored only slightly as she shrugged. “Well, you have no cause to keep looking so shocked then.” She patted Sansa’s hand and stood up. “Now, come let’s have a glass of lemonade or whatever you have handy, and you can tell me about your young man while we wait for him and your father to return. Why haven’t we heard anything about this one, anyway? You very obviously like him a lot.”

Sansa blushed deeply once more, wishing that she could have introduced Willas to her parents in any other way. He’d wanted to meet them forever. Had told her that keeping their relationship a secret from them was not a good idea. He’d been right, of course, but she’d been nervous. The age difference. The fact that he’d been her teacher at one point. She didn’t know how her parents would feel about any of that.

“Sansa?”

Her mother’s questioning voice made her realize she’d drifted off in her thoughts. “Sorry,” she said, not moving from the bed. “He’s Marg’s brother,” she began.

“I thought you told me Marg’s brother was gay.”

“That’s Loras. Willas is one of her other brothers. Her …oldest brother.”

Mother raised her eyebrows. “Really? How old is he?”

Sansa swallowed hard. “Thirty-one.”

“Thirty-one!” her mother exclaimed, almost choking on her words. She regained her composure rather quickly though. “So, I imagine he’s out of school then. What sort of work does he do?”

Sansa took a deep breath and answered her mother’s question. “He teaches at the university.”

“He …what? Sansa! Are you telling me you’re sleeping with one of your professors?” Her mother looked as stunned as she had when Sansa had opened her eyes after her orgasm to see both parents staring down at her from her open front door.

“No!” She shook her head violently. “I mean, I did take one of his classes. Margaery talked me into taking it with her as sort of a lark, but that was last year. He teaches history, Mother, and I’m a business major, so I’ll never be in his class again. And we only started dating four months ago. Long after I finished his class!” Her mother still looked rather stunned. “And I got a C in the stupid class! So no one could ever accuse me of sleeping with him for a good grade!” she added, almost hysterically.

At that, her mother actually laughed, although she still looked a little wobbly. She put her arm around Sansa’s waist. “So …you are telling me that your father is currently discovering that the man he discovered fornicating on the floor with his daughter is not only ten years her senior, but her college professor to boot.”

Sansa winced at her mother’s summation, but couldn’t deny its basic accuracy. “Nine,” she corrected. “He’s nine years older than I am. But yes.”

“Oh god,” said her mother, looking briefly heavenward. “I don’t think lemonade is going to be adequate after all, sweetheart. Do you have any wine?”

 

EDDARD

“And do you often sleep with your students, Dr. Tyrell?” Ned knew perfectly well the question was both rude and insulting, but he found himself unable to care. This man had the unmitigated gall to use his position to seduce an innocent young girl like Sansa and then stand there and claim their relationship was based on mutual respect and affection. He dearly wanted to hit the man, but while Tyrell was too old for Sansa, he was still more than fifteen years younger than Ned and looked to be in very good shape except for the noticeable limp. He didn’t think Cat would be pleased by his ending up in either the hospital or jail, so he’d stick to insults rather than punches.

“I have never had a relationship with any of my students, Mr. Stark,” the man said, his voice remarkably calm for someone who stood there blatantly lying. “And I never dated a former student before Sansa. She was … a surprise, to say the least.”

“Former student? I was not aware my daughter had withdrawn from the university,” Ned said as he stood facing the man in the little park near Sansa’s apartment. It was a fairly brisk cool day, and Ned was pleased to see the man shiver a bit in the wind. An autumn breeze didn’t bother Ned Stark.

“I mean that she is no longer my student, Mr. Stark. Sansa has not been in my class since last December. And we did not have any contact outside class except when I saw her a few times with my younger sister. She and Margaery are friends. You know Marg, do you not?”

Ned nodded grimly. The Tyrell girl was charming, but far more worldly than Sansa, and he was pretty sure she’d spent a good deal of time in Robb’s bed when she’d come to visit Sansa over winter break Sansa’s freshman year.

“Well, I do visit my sister, Mr. Stark, and your daughter was nearly always over there. I’m surprised she never moved in with Marg, to be honest.”

Ned knew why that hadn’t happened. He and Catelyn had made Sansa live on campus until her senior year, and as Margaery Tyrell graduated last year, she and her influence were now gone. Only to be replaced by an even worse Tyrell, it seemed. “So you merely flirted with her while you taught her, and waited until after Christmas break to seduce her then. Such restraint.”

“Damn it, man! I respect that you’re Sansa’ father, but I’ll not stand here and be insulted!” Willas Tyrell was losing a bit of his restraint now, and his raised voice caused a passing jogger to pause a moment and look at the two men. Tyrell lowered his voice again. “I will not deny that Sansa has intrigued me since the day I met her. I’ve never known anyone like your daughter. My first thought was that she was good for Marg. Sansa is beautiful and vivacious and loves to have fun just like my sister. I think that’s what drew Marg to her, but Sansa is also responsible and thoughtful, which Marg, to be honest, often isn’t.”

Ned found himself impressed against his will by what he considered rather accurate and honest assessments of both Sansa and her flirtatious friend, but he said nothing and did not change his expression. “When did you begin sleeping with my daughter?” he asked, his voice still hard, but making it simply a question this time.

“August,” he said without hesitation. “I cannot give you the date, but I can tell you it was the second Saturday of the month so if you have a calendar handy …” 

Ned realized the man was baiting him so he didn’t respond. 

“I could tell you everything about that day, Mr. Stark, but I won’t. Not because I don’t want to shock Sansa’s father, but because that day belongs to me and to Sansa. It was easily one of the most important days of my life, and I’m not sharing it with anyone else.”

Ned was silent a moment. “I won’t ask for the details of your personal life, Mr. Tyrell,” he said finally. “Nor of my daughter’s. She is young. Very young. But she is an adult. I wish she hadn’t given her mother that damn key and that I’d never seen what I saw today. But I also wish she’d told us about you. I can’t help worrying that her silence means she’s somehow ashamed of what she’s doing. And I won’t have her feel ashamed. Not after …” Ned stopped. He would not speak of that to anyone. Certainly not to this man.

“After Joffrey Baratheon, you mean?”

Ned was stunned. Sansa had never told anyone about Joffrey. She’d begged and pleaded with him and Cat not to press charges against the little shit so Ned had contented himself with breaking the boy’s nose. His mother had wanted to press charges against Ned over that, but when Robert discovered that his son had spent his senior year of high school smacking fifteen year old Sansa around and finally attempting to rape her after prom, he’d shut his wife up and packed his son off to some military style college. Ned hadn’t had anything to with any of them since, but he still regretted not realizing what was going on with Sansa sooner. Not protecting her as he should have.

“She told you,” he said dully. “Did she tell Margaery as well?”

“No,” Tyrell said. “Only me.” He looked at Ned carefully. “Do you wish it to be kept secret, Mr. Stark?”

Ned glowered at him. “I’d like to shout from the rooftops what kind of monster that boy really is—what he did to my baby girl.” He shook his head. “Sansa doesn’t want that. She feels ashamed of what happened when none of it was her fault. Her mother and I remained silent for her. But she’s an adult now, Dr. Tyrell. I won’t keep silent ever again if any man tries to shame her. If you think I won’t go to university administration over this if my daughter ends up hurt …”

“Sansa will never be hurt by me,” the man interrupted. “You have my word on that.” He sighed. “You are right about it not being an ideal situation,” he admitted. “I tried very hard to push her away this summer at Highgarden.”

“Highgarden?” Ned said suddenly. “You started this up when she stayed with your sister this summer? That was early July! You told me this began in August.”

“You asked a very specific question, Mr. Stark. I gave you a very specific answer. Sansa and I began our relationship at Highgarden, but it did not become sexual there. Whether you believe it or not, I am even more aware of our age difference than you are. I had no intention of things moving even as quickly as they did, but once she got her apartment here …” He shook his head and closed his mouth.

“So you taught my daughter last year and then fell in love with her this summer,” Ned said.

“I admitted I loved Sansa this summer,” Tyrell said. “To be honest, Mr. Stark, I think I fell in love with your daughter the same day I realized how little interest she truly has in history.” He shook his head wonderingly. “Which is quite surprising as history is easily what I love second best.”

 _What he loves second best,_ Ned thought. The man had said it unself-consciously, not as if he were intentionally attempting to impress upon Ned the seriousness of his feelings for Sansa. Throughout the entire painful conversation, Ned had to admit Tyrell had spoken to him as a man rather than as his daughter’s boyfriend. _Well, he is man, dammit. A college professor who should have known better than to fall for his student! He’s nearly as close to my age as he is to Sansa’s. ___

__He didn’t say any of that, though. Instead, he asked, “What did she do? To reveal her disinterest in history, I mean. It’s never been her favorite subject. I think the only classes she hated more were math classes, actually. I didn’t think we’d ever get her through trigonometry.”_ _

__Willas laughed. “She’s said the same. In the third week of my class, Eastern European History was the one she took, by the way, we were discussing the Balkans. I could see she wasn’t paying attention and at one point I asked her a question. She looked right at me with those big blue eyes of hers and said, ‘I don’t know’ just like that. I asked her if she could hazard a guess. She told me no. That she had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.” He shook his head, smiling. “Do you know I don’t even recall what I’d asked her? I do know what I did next though. I said, ‘Miss Stark, would you care to tell me anything you have learned in this class to date?’ She blushed then. God, she is lovely when she blushes. She thinks she looks like a tomato, but she doesn’t. Not at all.”_ _

__Ned watched Tyrell become distracted by simply thinking about Sansa’s blush, and he found himself unwillingly fascinated by it. Because he knew precisely what was happening to the man. He felt that way whenever Cat’s pale skin flushed._ _

__“Go on,” he said sharply before they both lost their train of thought. “Did she have an answer?”_ _

__“She smiled at me and said, “Yes. I have learned that all the countries in Eastern Europe change their borders and their names so often that I’ll never learn them and that I shall never enroll in a class suggested by Margaery Tyrell again.’ Then she sat there looking at me, waiting for me to respond. I wanted to laugh. Just looking at her made me smile, but I was her professor. I told her that she could remember more about the countries if she paid attention in class and that I was not responsible for Margaery’s shortcomings as a schedule advisor. She nodded to me then, as if acknowledging I’d successfully responded to her challenge, and she at least feigned reasonable attention for the remainder of that class period. Barely pulled a C in my course, though. And no. Before you ask, she never came to my office for private help.”_ _

__Ned could imagine his older daughter doing precisely as Tyrell had described, and it caused him to smile. Sansa had always been a good girl, but she also had a bit of a devilish sense of humor and a sense of theater. Before Joffrey, she’d quite liked being the center of attention. After Joffrey, she’d become more withdrawn, but over time had gradually begun to use her natural charm, grace, and humor to hide her insecurities, appearing supremely confident even when she wasn’t._ _

__“She liked you,” Ned said. “Even if she hated your class.”_ _

__“And I like her,” Tyrell told him. “Even if she hated my class.”_ _

__Ned nearly laughed, but he refused to do so. Regardless of how pretty or charming Sansa had been, this man still had a responsibility to see her only as a student, and he’d obviously failed to do so, no matter that it had taken him months to act on it. Still, Willas Tyrell might not be quite the villain he’d feared initially._ _

__“Come on,” he said. “We should get back to the apartment. Sansa will be convinced I’ve killed you by now, and even Cat will start to wonder.”_ _

__

__CATELYN_ _

__“Just how much wine have you had, Cat?”_ _

__Catelyn glared at her husband over her wine glass. “It isn’t the wine talking, Eddard Stark. I’ll have you know this is only my second glass, and it’s still mostly full. I truly believe she’s all right.”_ _

__Ned snorted, and then he looked toward the closed door of Sansa’s bedroom. “What the devil do you suppose they’re doing in there?”_ _

__She laughed. “They aren’t having sex, my love, if that’s what you’re worried about. I doubt the poor things will have the courage to have sex again until they’re convinced we’ve left the state.” She laughed harder at the glowering expression on his face. “Have a glass of wine, Ned. You look awfully tense.”_ _

__“I am tense. Wine will not help.”_ _

__“Well,” she said, shrugging her shoulders slightly. “I could try other methods to relieve your tension, but that would just bring us all back to where we started, with reversed roles, of course.”_ _

__Ned’s expression was priceless. “Second glass, Catelyn? Are you sure about that?”_ _

__She sighed. “All right,” she said, her voice losing all its teasing quality. “I give up trying to coax a smile out of you. It obviously isn’t going to work.” She set her wine glass down and stood to walk over to her husband who’d been standing and pacing since he and Willas Tyrell had returned a few moments before. He obviously hadn’t worked through this yet. She supposed she hadn’t either. She hadn’t expected this, really. She’d assumed Sansa would fall for a college classmate as she had—not a professor a decade older. But, regardless of her assumptions, Sansa was obviously in love with Willas Tyrell, even if she didn’t know it yet._ _

__She put her hands on Ned’s shoulders, not in any attempt at teasing seduction but simply to keep him looking squarely at her face rather than stalking away to pace some more. “The kids went into Sansa’s room because I asked her to take Willas there when you returned. I wanted a chance to speak to you alone.”_ _

__“Kids? He’s nearer to your age than Sansa’s, Cat!”_ _

__“He is not. Don’t exaggerate. I’m forty-seven, he’s thirty-one, and Sansa’s twenty-two. Do the math.”_ _

__“I have done it,” he said glumly, running his hand over his face and through his hair as she’d seen him do a thousand times. “Thirty-one! My god, at his age, I had four kids already! I don’t want Sansa pressured into marriage and children because her boyfriend’s facing a mid-life crisis!”_ _

__She put her hand on his cheek. “Our parents thought we were both too young, remember? Your father asked us outright if I were pregnant. And Brandon!” She shook her head. “Ugh. I dated him for six months when I was seventeen and you’d have thought …” She shook her head again, not wishing to speak ill of the dead, but truthfully neither Ned’s father nor brother had been enthusiastic when they’d announced their plans to marry. She understood that now. As a parent, she was no more anxious than Ned was to see Sansa commit to marriage for all she was a year older than Catelyn had been. But that didn’t mean she’d be horrible to her daughter over the fact she had fallen in love. Whatever path Sansa chose, it would be her choice, just as she and Ned had made their own choice all those years ago._ _

__“That was different,” he said._ _

__“Was it?” she asked him seriously. “She loves him, Ned. She’s barely coming to terms with it herself, and who can blame her after that horrible boy. But she does love him.”_ _

__“You can’t know that.”_ _

__“Can’t I? I know our daughter, my love. So do you. And I know what it is to fall in love with a man so deeply that everything makes more sense in the world because he’s in it.”_ _

__He smiled at her then. “I do love you, Cat. And yes, I loved you when I was Sansa’s age. But sometimes I think we were as foolish as our parents thought we were—only we were also very, very lucky. Look at all the people we know who haven’t been so lucky.”_ _

__She shook her head. “We weren’t lucky, Ned. We chose each other, and we never stopped choosing each other. I hope that our children have seen that. Now, I don’t want Sansa rushing into marriage any more than you do, and she won’t. She’s having sex, my love, not picking out china patterns.”_ _

__“I don’t want to think about it.”_ _

__“I know you don’t. But I do want you to hear this. Every step this relationship has taken forward has been Sansa’s idea.”_ _

__Ned snorted._ _

__“It has,” she repeated firmly. “She and I talked a great deal. She told him about Joff, Ned.”_ _

__“I know.”_ _

__“She’s never told anyone about Joff. Willas is very aware of her trust issues and about how ashamed she felt for so long. She’s been completely honest with him.” Much to Catelyn’s shock, she’d even told him about Harold Hardyng, although Catelyn wouldn’t share that with Ned. Sansa’s desperate attempt to get over her fear of men by losing her virginity her freshman year in college with a popular and promiscuous frat boy had, of course, caused her to feel worse about herself instead. But when Sansa had tearfully come to her for help six months after that, she’d begged her never to tell her father, and so Catelyn had arranged for counseling sessions near the university all without Ned’s knowledge. It was the only secret she’d ever kept from her husband. But it was Sansa’s secret, not hers, and she would not share it even now._ _

__“He does seem rather protective of her,” Ned said grudgingly. “And I do believe he loves her.”_ _

__“That’s wonderful!” Catelyn said._ _

__“Is it?” He shook his head. “I don’t know if she’s ready to be loved like that, Cat. I watched him talk about her today.”_ _

__“What do you mean?”_ _

__Ned sighed. He wasn’t one for discussing such things, and she watched his face as he sought for words to explain himself to her. “Do you have any idea how I feel about you?” he said finally._ _

__“Well, I do hope you love me,” she said lightly._ _

__“I do. But that’s just a word. I hear people say it all the time, and I think …no. That’s not it. That’s not what I feel when I look at you. When I touch you. When I think about you. It’s …incredibly sweet, and …powerful. And sometimes …it honestly takes my breath. And people say that all the time, too. But they don’t really mean it …I mean …if you didn’t love me, Cat, I don’t know what I would do. I truly don’t.”_ _

__“Well, you don’t have to worry about that. Ever. Because I do love you, Eddard Stark. Every minute of my life. Even when I’m tempted to murder you.” She smiled at him, trying hard not to cry. She knew he loved her, of course, but he was not one for words, and she thought that this particular stumbling attempt to explain his feelings might just be the most romantic declaration of love she’d heard in twenty-six years of marriage._ _

__“But if Tyrell feels anything close to that for Sansa, and she doesn’t love him, Cat …that’s a hell of a lot of pressure on her, especially now that they’re …”_ _

__“Having sex,” Catelyn finished for him. She smiled at his involuntary flinch. He was trying, she realized, but to him, Sansa would always in some ways be five years old—his to spoil and protect. And she’d always be fifteen years old, broken and sad, and in need of protection he felt he’d failed to give her._ _

__“I want her to be happy, Cat. I do. But I need her to be safe.”_ _

__“I know, my love,” she said, winding her arms around his neck. “Do you trust my judgment?”_ _

__“Always.”_ _

__“Then believe me when I say she loves him. She’s been hurt, but she’s not fragile any more. She’s strong enough to stand on her own two feet and go after what she wants. And what she wants, my love, is Willas Tyrell.” She kissed him briefly. “So if you truly think he loves her too, I’m very glad to hear it.”_ _

__He sighed. “So what are we supposed to do now?”_ _

__“The same thing we’ve always done, I imagine. Try to love her. Support her. Encourage her. And we can still give her advice, Ned. We just can’t ground her anymore if she decides not to take it.”_ _

__Ned tightened his arms around her. “I’ll try to remember that. You’re a hell of a mother, Cat. You know that? Thank God the kids have you because I can’t even imagine what a mess I’d have made of them on my own.”_ _

__She laughed. “Well, you couldn’t have made them on your own for starters, but I assure you they have been a group project—for better or worse, they all belong to both of us.”_ _

__He groaned, but he was smiling. Then he took one hand and ran it down through her hair. “We’re missing the football game.”_ _

__“Yeah,” she said. “I had a feeling that was going to happen when I opened the door earlier.”_ _

__“Jesus! Don’t remind me!” He sighed wearily. “It’s been a hell of a day, Cat. “_ _

__“Would a kiss help?”_ _

__“Maybe. I’d like to try it out.”_ _

__Laughing, she pressed her lips to her husband’s thanking God for him even as she prayed that he might grant Sansa as much happiness as she’d found._ _

__

__WILLAS_ _

__“Your parents seem nice,” he said evenly when Sansa had dragged him into her bedroom and closed the door behind them almost as soon as he and her father had returned. He’d barely gotten to speak five sentences to Mrs. Stark who seemed far friendlier than her husband and was drop dead gorgeous besides. She looked a lot like Sansa, and Willas had experienced an intriguing glimpse of what it might be like to grow older with Sansa beside him, ever beautiful and looking at him with the same affection and concern that showed so plainly in her mother’s eyes when she looked at the stern faced Ned Stark._ _

__“Ha. Ha.” She said._ _

__“I’m not sure they’re quite ready to sit out in the living room while we knock boots in here, though.”_ _

__“You’re not funny, Willas.”_ _

__“Oh, come on. I’m a little bit funny.”_ _

__“No. You aren’t.”_ _

__“You’re the one who dragged me into your bedroom and closed the door with your parents right outside. Considering what your parents found us doing earlier, I’d say you’re the one who’s really funny, Sansa.”_ _

__“God, don’t remind me. And this was Mother’s idea.”_ _

__Willas raised his eyebrows. “Your mother wants us to pick up where we left off? I knew I liked her.”_ _

__“Don’t be an idiot. She wants to talk to my father. No one can soothe Daddy like she can.” She looked at him nervously. “How was he?”_ _

__“Terrifying. Thank God I’m not eighteen or even twenty-five! I think I’d have died a thousand times during that conversation. Your father is as intimidating as hell, Sansa.”_ _

__“Oh, God. I knew he’d be awful!” She turned and walked away from him. “He’ll never forgive me!”_ _

“Forgive you?” Willas looked at the soft auburn waves of hair falling down her slender back. She had her head slightly bowed and her arms wrapped around herself. In spite of being a rather tall woman, she looked small, and vulnerable, and oh so young. _God help me, she is so young._

__“Babe, look at me. You’ve got this all wrong.”_ _

Sansa turned slowly. Her eyes were wet, but she met his. _She is young,_ he thought, _but not a child._ She always met his eyes. 

__“Your father isn’t the least bit angry at you. I think he’d happily boil me in oil, but he doesn’t need to forgive you because he doesn’t believe you’ve done anything wrong.”_ _

__“Um, Will, there were two of us going at it on the carpet earlier. Or had you forgotten I was there?”_ _

__“Never!” he said. “Perish the thought. But, seriously, he fears you’ve been taken advantage of by a lecherous older man.” He crossed the bedroom to put his hands on her arms, and he saw her look down at her leg. His limp had increased just slightly after the walk to the park and back. No one ever noticed the tiny changes in his gait except her. “My leg’s fine,” he said preemptively. “It’s getting cold outside and you know it bothers me a bit worse in the cold. That’s all.”_ _

__“Mmm,” she nodded. “Daddy probably loved that. Not your leg. The cold. He’s damn near impervious to it, I swear, and he takes a certain pride in that.”_ _

__“I’d say the same about you, Sansa.”_ _

__She laughed. “Fair enough, but that’s because you’re a thin blooded southerner. I like the cold, but honest. My dad has ice for blood, I think.”_ _

__“I’d agree with that, based on his expression throughout most of our conversation.”_ _

__“I can imagine,” Sansa said. “I’m afraid to talk to him, Willas.”_ _

__“Don’t be. He was angry at me, Sans, but he had good reason. Am I not a college professor sleeping with a student from last year’s class? A student still enrolled at my school? My little sister’s best friend? Who’s nearly ten years younger than I am?”_ _

__“Willas! It’s not like that! We’re not …”_ _

__“I know, babe. But your father doesn’t. He’d never even heard of me before today, after all.”_ _

__“I know, I know. I should have told them.”_ _

__“I wasn’t going to say I told you so.”_ _

__“But you were thinking it.”_ _

__He grinned. “I was thinking it.” He ran his hands up and down over her arms. “Seriously, Sansa, your dad thinks you hung the moon. That was the most obvious thing in my conversation with him. He just doesn’t want me to be like Joffrey …or Harry.”_ _

__“He doesn’t know about Harry,” she said softly. “Oh, God, Willas, you didn’t tell him about …”_ _

__“No, no, Sansa! You told me that no one in your family knew about that except your mother. I would never talk about it. But your father wouldn’t want me to be like Hardyng whether he knows about him or not. I had that kid in a couple classes. Complete prick.”_ _

__“Willas!”_ _

__“It’s true. I thought it even before I knew how he treated you. Now …well, it’s a good thing he’s already graduated or I might lose my job.”_ _

__“Willas!”_ _

__“Your dad got to break the Joffrey kid’s face. Don’t blame me for wanting to protect you, Sansa. I’m not your father. I don’t want to be your father. But I do want to protect you.”_ _

__“I know.” She sighed. “Right now, I might need protection from my father.”_ _

__Willas sighed. Sansa was an intelligent and perceptive woman, but when she got an idea in her head, it was nearly impossible to dislodge. “Have you not heard a word I said? Everything between you and your father is fine. I’m the only one he has a problem with. And, Sansa, I will do everything in my power to fix that, all right? Because I know it matters to you.”_ _

__“Thank you.”_ _

__“I love you, Sansa Stark. I’m not going anywhere unless you tell me to go away. Your father can say anything he wants, but I still won’t go. I’m a big boy. I can handle it. This has to be the worst meet the parents scenario in history, but we can handle this together. I love you.”_ _

__Her eyes lit up, and she said, almost breathlessly, “I think I love you, too.”_ _

__She’d never said anything like that before. He knew she cared about him—he felt her love in a hundred tiny ways, but she just couldn’t let go of the words, and he understood why. God, it was good to hear them, though, and he knew he was grinning like an idiot._ _

__“I really do,” she said._ _

__She threw her arms around him then and kissed him deeply and for so long that he nearly forgot everything else. When she finally pulled back, he looked at the still closed bedroom door._ _

__“What?” she asked him._ _

__“Just looking for our audience.”_ _

__“Still not funny,” she said, smacking his arm._ _

__“Are you ready to go see your father?” he asked her._ _

__“You’ll stay right with me?”_ _

“As long as you want me.” _For all my life._

__She held his hand as he opened the door into the living room to a lovely view of Mr. and Mrs. Stark kissing rather passionately over by counter._ _

__“They do that a lot,” Sansa said._ _

__“Good,” Willas said. “I like to see that passion lasts in this family. It’s a very promising sign.”_ _

__She smacked his arm hard enough to make him say ouch rather loudly, and the two older Starks released their lip lock and turned to look toward them. He saw Sansa’s mother’s eyes move to their clasped hands and then she stepped out of her husband’s arms, nudging him not so gently. Mr. Stark looked at his wife and smiled. Actually smiled a real smile all the way up into his grey eyes, and Willas had to blink to be certain he was the same man who’d interrogated him in the park._ _

__Then Mr. Stark turned toward Sansa with that smile still in place and held out his arms. “Come here, princess.”_ _

__“Daddy!” She slipped her hand from his flew into her father’s arms._ _

__Willas watched them for a moment, but then turned to look at Mrs. Stark who was watching them as well with tears in those eyes that looked so remarkably like Sansa’s. Then she turned to look at him before walking to the counter and holding up the wine bottle in silent invitation._ _

__He walked to join her and she poured him a glass, picking up one that was already half full for herself._ _

__“They’ll be fine,” she said, indicating father and daughter who were still standing there with their arms around each other. “She looks like me, but she’s always been her daddy’s girl.”_ _

__Willas raised an eyebrow._ _

__“Oh, don’t you believe for one minute the awful things they say about Daddy’s girls, Willas. I adored my father. Still do, even though he’s been dead for several years now. He taught me I was worthy of being loved wholeheartedly and that I could love wholeheartedly in return. He didn’t particularly like giving me away to Ned, but when he did, he knew I’d give him my whole heart.” She raised her glass to her lips and took a small sip. “And, of course, he knew I’d ask for nothing less than Ned’s whole heart in return,” she added meaningfully._ _

__She looked back to her husband and daughter who Willas saw were now moving to sit on the couch. Mr. Stark looked up and caught Mrs. Stark’s eye and he smiled at her. Willas watched as she returned her husband’s smile and the faintest of blushes came to her cheeks. He recalled talking of Sansa’s blushing with her father in the park and he grinned, thinking that Ned Stark might just understand him better than he’d thought._ _

__“Whole heart,” he heard her say softly, although he thought she might be speaking as much to herself as to him. She did turn to him then, and smiled. “It’s worked out pretty well for us so far.”_ _

__Willas returned her smile and raised his glass. “To Daddy’s Girls.”_ _

__She laughed and touched her glass to his. He decided he liked Sansa’s mother a great deal, and looked forward to getting to know her better. As he looked again at Sansa sitting with her father, he felt hopeful that the two of them find their way past their disastrous introduction. If both of these remarkable women loved the man so much, he couldn’t be that bad. As for Sansa, he knew how he felt about her with a certainty he’d never known in all his life. As he watched her and her father, she looked up at him and smiled, her eyes lighting up as they had she’d spoken to him in her bedroom._ _

_I think I love you, too._

He smiled back at her. _I’ll take that, Sansa. I’ll take it and we’ll go from here._


End file.
